Qatar to list first exchange-traded funds

Doha, May 11, 2014

Qatar's bourse plans to list its first exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year and these will be much larger than ETFs listed elsewhere in the Gulf, the stock exchange said on Sunday.

The launch of the two funds, which the exchange said would provide more diverse investment opportunities, will follow MSCI's upgrade of Qatar, plus the United Arab Emirates, to emerging market status later this month.

"One of these will be an ETF based on government fixed income risk from an Asian borrower and the second product is likely to be an ETF based on a representative Qatar-country index," Qatar Exchange chief executive Rashid Al-Mansoori said in a statement.

"We hope to introduce these ETFs to the market in the next six months. In terms of assets under management these transactions will be larger by an order of magnitude than anything else currently listed in the region."

Doha's bourse, whose benchmark rose 25 percent this year to hit a new all-time high, also said it is working with the market regulator to introduce margin trading and covered short selling rules.

Exchange-traded funds exist in some other Gulf markets such as Dubai, but many Gulf-focused funds are themselves based abroad. - Reuters